Andrew Baker

Director, Service Operations at SWN Communications, Inc.

Summary

Andrew S. Baker is a business-savvy leader of high-performance technology teams, with hands-on expertise in designing, deploying and maintaining secure, mission-critical computing environments for small to mid-sized organizations across such verticals as Financial Services, Media & Entertainment, Internet and Publishing. He creates competitive advantage for companies through effective IT leadership, implementation of processes and controls, and architecture of robust business solutions.For over a decade, Andrew has exhibited thought leadership on technology and business topics via mailing lists, technical forums, blogs, and professional networking groups, along with contributions to podcasts, webinars, and over 20 technical/business magazine articles. He also serves on several boards and committees for non-profit organizations.KEY CONTRIBUTIONS:• Reduced costs, and improved performance, flexibility and security of a hosted application environment by modernizing the infrastructure to include server and storage virtualization technologies.• Chief architect behind a global Active Directory 2003 infrastructure supporting 4000 users across 35+ countries. Led the NY-based team that performed the user migrations and supported the teams that subsequently rolled out Exchange 2003.• Implemented a comprehensive Information Security program for a global organization to significantly mitigate security risk for the business, and support regulatory compliance initiatives.• Developed and implemented the policies and procedures to improve IT operational performance by over 75%, including system and application uptime, help-desk response time, and tickets resolved per week.• Led several infrastructure teams in the deployment of a global Financial Reporting and Forecasting system used by over 100 business users in 35+ countries.

• Developed technology roadmaps and managed annual operating budgets up to $5.5 million.

Work experience

2007Present

Vice President, IT Operations

• Managed the desktop, server, networking and information security infrastructure in a 24x7 hosting environment. Led a team of 6 technology professionals, with a budget of $1.2M, in deploying and supporting business solutions on the Windows and HP3000 platforms, with budget influence for other areas within IT.

• Developed and implemented several procedures, including Change Management, Release Management, and Incident Response, which were used by all IT teams to provide notification to, and ensure coordination with, ARGI’s business units. Identified critical risks to ARGI’s business and worked with other business leaders to initiate the projects for mitigating those risks.

• Built a high-performing IT Operations team, and led them in modernizing ARGI’s server and network infrastructure using virtualization technologies (server, application and storage) from major vendors (Citrix, Microsoft, VMWare, StoneFly) in order to reduce the time required to provision new environments for both development and production.

2010Present

Director, Service Operations

• Managed the desktop, server and networking team in building, expanding and securing a first-class global emergency notifications network serving both the public and private sector in multiple countries.

20092010

Independent Technology Consultant

• Designed technology solutions for small-to-medium sized clients in the education, legal and accounting industries to support server virtualization, network design for corporate expansion, implementation of iSCSI SANs, and VPN connectivity between existing offices.

20042007

Director, Server Operations & Security

• Managed a geographically dispersed team of 12 systems administrators and security engineers, including 4 consultants. Developed and managed the annual Information Security budget of $2 million, and had budget influence for other areas within IT.

19962004

Independent Technology Consultant

• Increased productivity of small business clients by assessing their technical requirements and then generating detailed technology plans and roadmaps (both short-term and long-term) to align their IT infrastructure with their business goals. Developed Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity plans and procedures for small/medium-sized organizations. • Provided Remote Monitoring, Troubleshooting & Diagnostics, Vulnerability Assessment and Technical Architectural Guidance services for businesses without dedicated IT staff, or as a supplement to overworked IT staffs. • Developed and outlined comprehensive security solutions and processes for small-to-medium organizations, including vulnerability testing, threat assessment, and patch management. • Deployed comprehensive security solutions to protect client networks, including Email Content Filtering, host-based AntiVirus and IDS/IPS, and Firewalls with VPN.

20012002

Director, Internet Operations

• Responsible for the Internet-facing server infrastructure, along with the overall enterprise Networking and Security infrastructure at The Princeton Review (TPR). • Defined and implemented tools and processes which led to a 30% increase in the stability of servers and the network. Worked with Development groups to define testing and deployment standards to improve the success of code releases. • Designed and implemented a $350K network re-engineering project at The Princeton Review (TPR) which eliminated latency and congestion on the corporate LAN, and created redundancy for the links at the DataCenter and between the LAN and branch offices, and also improved performance by a factor of 3. • Worked closely with Client Services department at The Princeton Review (TPR) to support the network infrastructure for a 50-site WAN, including deploying site-to-site VPNs using Netscreen appliances. Assisted in the design and rollout of TPR's corporate Active Directory infrastructure.

19981999

Manager, Server & Network Infrastructure

• Led a team of Network Engineers and Server Administrators in maintaining 99+% uptime in About.com's 24x7, high-volume, co-located web-hosting environment. • Designed and deployed a highly redundant server and network architecture for About.com (formerly the Miningco.com) which was managed remotely via enterprise KVM and remote administration software, such as PCanywhere. • Migrated the About.com datacenter from one colocation facility to a new, modern facility that allowed us to expand our infrastructure by a factor of 6, and led to significant growth and visibility in the marketplace.

19971998

Managing Consultant

Automated Concepts Inc.

19941997

Technology Integration Specialist

Sanford C. Bernstein

19871991

Data-Processing Analyst/Supervisor

US Army

Education

Computer Science

19821986

Greater New York Academy

References

Brent Williams

Mr. Baker joined WMG and had an immediate impact. He assisted with a data center migration and started mentoring his subordinates and educating senior management.

Within the first couple of months, he performed a security analysis and developed plans and processes to improve WMG's security posture. He was also instrumental with WMG's SOX compliance initiative.

Laura DiDio

Andrew Baker is one of the most knowledgeable and forward thinking IT professionals I have ever met. Andrew's knowledge of systems, networks, applications and security is broad and deep.

He stays abreast of all the latest developments and changes and performs extensive testing, so he knows what works and what doesn't work. Andrew is also able to apply his understanding of the technology and apply it to the business issues that impact an organization's Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Return on Investment (ROI). This makes Andrew Baker an invaluable asset to his employers, his colleagues as well as peers (such as myself) who contact him on a regular basis to tap his knowledge. And Andrew is unfailingly generous in sharing his knowledge and his time.

Andrew Baker is the consummate VP of IT and security professional. He would be an invaluable asset to any organization lucky enough to get him.

Pete Taylor

Andrew was a key driver to the organization's infrastructure and ability to accommodate growth, and provided the organization with an enterprise class infrastructure solution.

I would highly recommend Andrew for any position requiring a highly motivated results oriented leader.

Jeff Gray

I have had the pleasure of working with Andrew over the past 2 years. Andrew is the ultimate IT Professional!!

He is well versed in all areas of IT and willing to share his vast knowledge with anyone that has a question or needs help. I consider myself lucky to have had the priviledge to work with Andrew.

Dave Hendricks

Andrew epitomizes the fusion of IT management and the delivery of mission critical business services. He has an outstanding ability to pin point issues and devise solutions that are both cost-conscious and business savvy.

Andrew can also communicate effectively to both clients and internal staff, an increasingly important skill that is too often lacking in corporate IT.